A MANAGER at McDonald’s in Ruislip High Street stole £12,400 from the till of the fast-food restaurant to feed a drugs habit.

Maria Marney, of Britannia Close, Northolt, was given a 15-month suspended jail sentence and ordered to do 250 hours community service after she admitted stealing the cash over a three-month period this year.

The 27-year-old was once the youngest person in the country to hold the post of shift manager at McDonald’s, Isleworth Crown Court was told on November 4.

Marney had started at the global burger chain when she was 16 and worked her way up to the position of manager with responsibility for cashing up the end of the day. But she was heavily addicted to cocaine and spent up to £200 a day on her habit while she ran up debts.

When she was caught by senior McDonald’s staff she admitted the theft and begged them not to call the police.

Emma Antonelli, prosecuting, said: “On August 2 the manager was alerted by the accounts department to cash discrepancies and he began his investigation by looking at the CCTV in the office where the cashing up was done.”

On one occasion Marney was seen putting cash in her waistband and leaving the premises.

She was contacted by the manager and asked to attend a meeting where she owned up to her theft.

Police also found several letters from debt collectors, and money bags when they searched her home, the court was told.

James Hanlon, defending, said his client “loved her job, and devoted her life to it” and was ashamed and devastated by her own actions.

Ms Antonelli said Marney had referred herself to Cocaine Anonymous and was doing well on the programme.

Judge Dugdale told her: “You were a manager, therefore a high degree of trust was placed in you. That’s an aggravating feature, people trust employees with cash because the whole system is based on mutual trust.”